e put one grain of wheat in a common
garden-pot. In August the same was divided into four plants, which in
three weeks were again divided into twelve plants. In September these
twelve plants were divided into thirty-two, which in November were
divided into fifty plants, and then placed in open ground. In July,
1843, twelve of the plants failed, but the remaining thirty-eight were
healthy. On the 19th August they were cut down, and counted 1,972 stems,
with an average of fifty grains to a stem, giving an increase of 98,600.
Now, if this be a practicable measure of planting wheat, it follows that
most of the grain now used for seed may be saved, and will infinitely
more than cover the extra expense of sowing, as the wheat plants can be
raised by the labourer in his garden, his wife and children being
employed in dividing and transplanting them. One of the stems was rather
more than six feet long, and stout in proportion.

CULTIVATION OF WASTE LANDS.--EMPLOYMENT OF LABOURERS.--A paper was
recently laid before the Council of the Royal Agricultural Society of
England, by Lord Portman, which we think deserves a much greater degree
of attention than we believe it has yet received, in that it shows to
what a considerable extent waste lands may, without any very heavy
expenditure of money, be brought into profitable cultivation, and at the
same time, under a well-regulated system of spade husbandry, yield
abundant employment to agricultural labourers and their families. The
following is the substance of the document referred to:--His lordship,
who has large estates in Dorsetshire, found that a tract of land, called
Shepherd's Corner, about 200 acres in extent, was wholly unproductive,
yielding a nominal rent of 2s. 6d. per acre. About fifteen years ago his
lordship resolved to make an experiment with this land. He accordingly
gave directions to his steward that it should be laid out in six
divisions, representing so many small farms, in the cultivation of which
such of the labourers as could not obtain full work from the
neighbouring farmers were occasionally employed. For the three first
years there were no returns, the ground having been merely broken up
with the spade, and the surface soil exposed. In subsequent years this
land was sown chiefly with turnips, fed off by sheep, until it was found
in sufficient heart for the reception of grass and corn seeds, the
crops from which were at first scanty and indifferent, but sufficie